New Faces, Same Places {OPEN}

[draym]

Draym propped himself up in bed, pushing off his work boots after lounging for a few moments to stretch his back out. He slipped the boots out of the way next to his bed in the male part of the barracks and then stood. No one was around, not that there were many male candidates it seemed.

Choosing to stick with his current, slightly unattractively plain work tunic and pants, Draym wondered out into the lounging area, or the commons, of the barracks. He wasn't quite sure what to really call it.

As he looked around, he couldn't help but notice that this area was also, well, quite empty. "Ugh, you have got to be sharding kidding me. Not even a low fire in the hearth."

As Draym busied himself with starting a small, manageable fire, really more for noise than major heat, he drifted off into thinking about his duties for the next day. He stood slowly, still lost in thought, and planted himself on the larger piece of the furniture in the commons area, a sofa of sorts.

"So much to do, I wish I could just Impress already."

[Ruby]

Little did Draym know, but he was being stalked. A low shadow hovered on the edges of the room, moving elegantly and silently from behind one chair to a low table, then back behind another chair with just the faintest rustle of feathers mostly covered by the crackle of burning logs. Draym wouldn't notice until he sat down on the couch, but a flower had appeared on the cushions while he was busy stoking the fire, a pretty jungle bloom with white petals edged in shocking blue. Where it had come from was anyone's guess, but the stem was rather mangled, almost as if it had been chewed. His idle words were met with an odd sound from behind and to his left - a sort of rustling paired with a faint hum. Distinctly not a human sound.

An equally subtle pop announced exactly nothing, but about two minutes later a fairly uncomfortable-looking young woman with Greenrider's knots stuck her head into the common room, attended by a dark blue firelizard and a sky blue salamandyr. "He do be in here?" she asked the flit, who nodded slowly before spiraling up towards the ceiling, disappearing between with another pop. The bright-eyed Salamandyr chirped, as if to confirm the firelizard's agreement, then balanced himself upright on his owner's shoulder to survey the room.

Finally spotting the Candidate on the couch, Ten took another look around, then asked, "Um. You have no seen a swan around, have you?" Her Glasscraft accent was still rather thick after all these years, but she could be understood now, at least. "Cujo" a gesture towards the ceiling made it clear she was talking about the now-absent flit "Did say he was in here. Somewhere."

[draym]

Draym noticed the flower when he sat down. That's strange, I'm pretty sure that wasn't here when I came in. It was after Draym had spoken to the supposedly empty room that he heard something strange. To the left behind him, something oddly inhuman rustled and hummed. He decided to dismiss it really, it could simply be a fire-lizard or one of those mandyrs that he'd seen around the Weyr lately.

What caught Draym's attention was the pretty head that popped from around the corner, attached to the body of what the knots on her shoulders told him was a Greenrider. Her accent was somewhat hard to understand, but Draym could tell that the time in the Weyr had thinned it out.

The candidate tilted his head at the mention of something called a swan, but he smiled at the rider. He saw a mandyr on her shoulder, a pretty sky blue one. The fire-lizard that had come in with her had vanished just about as quick.

"Hi there, I'm Draym. I'm sorry, but I don't even know what a swan is." He eyed the blue mandyr. "But that on your shoulder is one of those salamandyr things right?"

Draym stood and picked up the flower on the couch. "Does it have something to do with this?"

[Ruby]

"Draym? It do be nice to meet you, I'm Ten. Well, Tenlie, but I do prefer the nickname," she said, sketching a little curtsey out of habit. He was seated, after all, and crossing the room to shake his hand seemed awkward, despite the fact that a rider curtseying to a candidate was just as odd. At least she was wearing a skirt (also out of habit. Old patterns died hard). "And yes, this do be Grip." Grip, the mandyr repeated, his tail curling tight around Ten's neck as if to illustrate where his name had come from. When Draym showed the flower, though, Grip added No, using his over-large wings to flutter over and land on the Candidate's wrist, sniffing at the flower. No no no no.

"I do no think he meant you, Grip," Ten said with an indulgent smile for her Blue, bustling forward to retrieve the wayward pet. "I do be sorry, he's very friendly but I know not everyone does like 'mandyrs, especially when they land on you without permission," she added, reaching out - but Grip scuttled up to Draym's shoulder, away from his owner. Yes good. "Er. I do think he likes you? I can get him off if you'd like." Whatever Draym chose, though, Ten was already glancing around the room again, narrowing her eyes at a large, suspicious shadow. "And a swan do be a white big bird, they live around lakes mostly? But Ugly Duckling thinks I'm his mama, so he mostly lives with me, except he did no come home for dinner tonight. And."

And Ten knew that Ducky had an annoying habit of stalking potential mates and leaving them flowers. Draym's hair was just long enough that Ducky might mistake him for a mate. "And yes, Ducky might have left you that flower. He do be... a tad confused, always." Ten blushed easily, and right now was no exception - her cheeks colored slightly, and for probably the millionth time she was glad her skin was darkish. At least she didn't flare red in quite the same way as Mi'rah.

[draym]

Draym smiled at the girl. Her courtesy was nice, even though Draym knew that she outranked him by a good bit. He was nothing but a Candidate, and essentially a drudge until there was a Hatching. But a new friend, was great no matter what rank.

"Ten it is then." He grinned at her.

Draym jumped slightly as the blue mandyr landed on his wrist and started sniffing the flower, the no's resonating in Draym's Mind. "Seems friendly, and I heard that the little critters aren't all that nice. No, Grip, I didn't mean you." He chuckled.

As Ten moved to grab Grip, the mandyr had other ideas and scooted up to Draym's shoulder. The Candidate laughed.

"He's fine, as long as he doesn't bite me." Draym reached up and softly patted Grip's head with a finger gently. "Grip makes me want one." He smiled at Ten.

As she spoke about this giant bird thing, Draym frowned. Confused about what? Draym wasn't liking this Ducky too much, especially when he wasn't sure where the thing was, if it was in the room. He saw Ten blush and smiled.

"Don't worry, I think we can find him before he does anything...bad." He gently picked Grip off his shoulder and handed the salamandyr back to Ten. "So where should we look?"

[Ruby]

His acceptance of her nickname made her smile back at Draym - not everyone approved of it quite so quickly. Ten was pretty sure she'd had to correct Mi'rah for months, and as soon as they'd been apart he'd fallen right back in to bad habits. If Draym was going out of his way to be nice to her, Ten didn't notice. It was exactly how she'd treat someone who invaded her weyr to find a lost pet, although Rajnith might not have been so accommodating.

He is flirting, foolish SlaveMine. He is no! Pay attention to him, not me. You have Kierjaarth's back now, and I am dreadfully tired of hearing about him. Think of your candidate-pet for now, and let me rest.[/i]

Rajnith, as usual, managed to totally tongue-tie Ten in just a few private words, but lucky for the Rider her salamandyr had her back. Grip, who usually did his best to communicate like a firelizard, seemed to have taken a liking to Draym and translated that liking into speech. Yes, know good, he chattered, adding a vocal trill at the end before trying out a new word: Naaaiiice. Nice. Niiice. Grip nice. You nice.

"Oh, he would never bite, would you, Grip?" Ten asked, which got a definitive head-shake from the blue. Flaring his eye-marked wings, he submitted to the head scratch with enthusiasm, nuzzling Draym's finger. "I do believe I got lucky," Ten confided, watching Grip examine the Candidate's finger with a soft smile, "Although most of Grip's siblings do seem to be sweet-tempered. Those I have met, anyway. I do have less experience with Dementia's offspring, but they can be lovely pets -" Stopping herself, she tilted her head a little, and added, "But of course hatchings do be off-limit for Candidates. For good reason, too."

She left it at that, somewhat embarrassed that she'd just nearly lectured this boy who was really a young man, hardly younger than she was if he was younger at all. It wasn't his fault Rajnith had picked Ten when she was barely seventeen.

Luckily, Draym seemed to have been distracted by talk of the swan, and Ten seized on the change of subject with gusto. Accepting Grip when Draym held him out (perhaps more conscious than she should have been of his fingers brushing hers when he did), she looked back at that one odd shadow, listening carefully. "Oh, it is no so much bad as it is... well, inappropriate. He do be looking for a mate, you see," she said, gesturing at the flower. "He leaves gifts and such. He must be nearby, that flower do be fresh," she added, taking a deliberate step towards the shadow. "I bet that do be him, behind the armchair. Ducky?"

[draym]

Draym noticed a slight change in her face as their hands brushed against each other. That change was enough to make him blush. Apparently he had been flirting some? She might just have a weyrmate. He could be stepping on some territorial man's toes. He knew some riders could get just as possessive as dragons sometimes could.

Draym smirked softly and tried to play it off, not mentioning it for now. "Mates?" He ran a hand through his long hair. "Meaning he thinks I am a perspective mate? That...definitely could be inappropriate."

Looking over at the place Ten was now paying attention to, Draym shook his head. "Does the err...swan even think about the potential problems if the so called mate isn't the same species?"

Sighing and slipping back onto the couch, Draym patted next to him. "If you aren't in a rush, he might just come out if we sit here and talk. Or is he just going to keep hiding?"

Draym couldn't help but look up and down the woman. She was perhaps just a little older than him. He could feel the heat rising to his face again. Shard, why did he have to still be a virgin? Every pretty girl, it seemed, set him off in a way that might just be an awkward experience for both of them.

Shard. Shard. Shard. Best he just stay seated, expertly of course.

[Ruby]

Ten blithely ignored Draym's blush - or, more correctly, if she noticed it at all it puzzled her vaguely, nothing more. She didn't believe Rajnith, anyway, about the flirting. In the green's world, anything male belonged to her, and therefore all human males belonged to her rider, and desired her above all else. Ten did not exactly share this idea, even with Rajnith's attention focused on the encounter. She'd also always been awful at boys, but she refused to think that even quietly. Raj was sure to laugh at her.

Instead, she gave up on the shadow, turning back towards Draym. "Um. Aye. He do be... hard to convince that mates of the wrong species, or the wrong gender, aren't worth his time, until. Um." Now Ten was blushing, if for a distinctly different reason. "Until he figures out that... it... do no work." Rajnith snorted at that, just to Tenlie, which just made her turn redder. Not for the first time, she was thankful that her darker skin hid all but the worst flush. She was a full Rider, blooded in more than one battle, and she still couldn't talk about sex. Fabulous.

To cover her own embarrassment, she took the offered seat, spreading her skirt on the cushions took keep it from wrinkling. "Aye, he likely will come out. Jealous swan, Ducky can be. So." She looked down at her hands, not uncomfortable so much as unsure where to go next. She'd been at Burimyu so long with just the handful of Riders rattling around in the big, empty Weyr, then reuniting with old friends, that she's practically forgotten what it was like to meet someone new. "Where do you be from?"

[draym]

Draym turned his face away and silently cursed. Even a sharding bird got more action than him! Was he repulsive or something? The Candidate slid a hand through his hair before turning back to look at Ten as she sat there.

"He takes that a bit far then, doesn't he?" Draym tried not to blush as he shifted around to face her better, being sure to keep himself seated well enough to hide his embarrassing condition at this moment in time. Why did Ten have to be so cute?

At the mention of the bird being jealous, Draym fought, and lost to keep his next thought to himself. He blushed even as the words escaped his mouth.

"So should we do something to make him jealous?"

The boy could have beaten himself up! Why was he flirting with her so much?! He could get them both into trouble, not to mention that she probably would tell her weyrmate and then Draym would be murdered. Dumped where no one would find his body.

If he had been unable to keep the anguish of his inner feelings off his face, Draym would have looked slightly constipated at the moment. Somehow, though, he managed a soft smile.

"Err..I'm from Blossom Hold, down river from Selenitas."

[Ruby]

Whatever the conversation had been, Tenlie forgot it. Even she wasn’t so dim as to miss what he meant by making the swan jealous. And when he put it that way, there was no getting around it: Draym was cute. He reminded Ten a bit of K’fuzzi, who she had had a very brief crush on. So different from Mi’rah, but then, Mi’rah was hardly the only man in the world (despite all previous evidence to the contrary). Cheeks flaring, she managed to meet his eyes, and realized they were blue. Blue eyes had always been her favorite, and no one had ever asked if they could… whatever. Certainly not like that.

Rajnith’s presence in the back of Ten’s mind had sharpened, the Green’s attention focused and ever so amused. Grip had flitted off to examine a stray leaf, presumably from the flower, which had fallen to the floor, but he was humming in an unobtrusive, pleasant way. He never hummed except when Ten was happy. TenlieSaveLove? Rajnith asked privately, mental voice oh so sweet, Say, ‘What did you have in mind?’ then lean in just a little… Rajnith![/i] Ten hissed mentally, visibly unsure, What do you be trying to do? It is ‘are’, SlaveLove. And I am trying to get you out of this without offending the nice young man.

Well, that was alright, Ten figured, so she did as the green dragon suggested. “Er, what did you have in mind? To make him jealous and all?” she asked, leaning in just slightly and trying to mimic Rajnith’s sweet tone instead of simply using her own confused one. Simultaneously, Rajnith did something she almost never did, and spoke directly to Draym, bypassing Tenlie. I trust you are not leading her on?[/i] the meddling green cooed, giving him a bit of a mental shove before withdrawing her presence. There, that should do it.

[draym]

Draym blushed dark red. The sweet sound of Ten's voice plus her sudden change in attitude, it made Draym's heart race. She leaned in a bit, and Draym tilted his head. Then, her dragon spoke to Draym and he jumped a bit.

He had rarely ever heard a dragon, and it made him shudder slightly. Um..no? He wasn't even sure if he could be heard, but he felt he should reply. The candidate licked his lips softly, leaning in just a bit toward the girl.

"I don't know...something simple.." His hand reached up and lightly touched her cheek, before slipping into her long hair. His heart was beating out of his chest, and he was sure that she could hear it. He didn't have much experience with this kind of thing. Actually...none at all.

"Just...a little.." Before he could think anymore, or before she could withdraw, hopefully, Draym leaned in more. It wasn't but a moment before his lips touched hers softly.

[Ruby]

Excellent, Rajnith purred privately to Draym before withdrawing her mental touch. Ten, who'd pulled back a little when the candidate shuddered, got a pulse of encouragement from the green, which only puzzled her more. As such, she was caught completely by surprise when Draym's hand went in to her hair and he urged her closer, kissing her.

And... it was nice.

Yes, she'd kissed men (Mi'rah) before, even outside of flightlust (but only when she was already in bed with said men courtesy of flightlust, of course). She'd been giddy and confused then, though, grateful just to have gotten out of Raj's maiden flight without physical scars, even if Mi'rah hadn't been so lucky. It hadn't really counted. This, again, was nice. There was none of the sort of panic that made her feel about ten years old, the kind of panic she felt around Mi'rah, but something almost warm instead. Maybe it was just her cheeks turning bright red, but she pulled the Candidate closer, enjoying herself.

For a total of five seconds or so. Pretty quickly, though, she realized she was kissing some candidate she'd barely met, in the common room where anyone could see. Oh yeah, and she was looking for Ugly Duckling. That's right, that's why she'd come in here in the first place. Stupid, meddling green. Blinking, she pulled back, gently pushing Draym away. With a little giggle, she clapped one hand over her mouth, then spread her fingers so she could talk. "Um. Perhaps we should get to know each other better before... more of that. Not that it was no -" Oh, what was she trying to say? Ten didn't even know. Her eyes were bright, though, and she was smiling, on the verge of laughter. It was fun, after all.

[draym]

He was lost in the sensation of her lips. Draym eagerly slipped closer as she pulled on him, their lips softly dancing together. It was a nice, sweet feeling. She seemed just about as innocent as he was, and that was strange. She was a rider, she had much more experience than he did.

She pushed him away just a few moments later, and Draym licked his lips softly, flushed bright red as he looked at her with bashful eyes. "Um...erm...of course." He smiled sheepishly. "I don't know what came over me..."

He did, that dragon in his mind for a moment had certainly wanted him to do what he just did. He guessed it was Ten's dragon, her green. He smiled more to himself. If the dragon likes me, maybe I have an actual shot.

Draym bit his lower lip as he looked at this beautiful rider sitting close to him. "That...that was my first kiss, Ten." He blushed.

[Ruby]

"No, no," Ten jumped in, laying a hand on Draym's knee for a second before pulling it back, hovering somewhere in between her knee and his. "Do no apologize," Not that he really had, but Ten was ready to make an assumption, "It was both of us." And Rajnith, she added silently, and acidly, to the Green. Do stop meddling, would you? The Green had nothing to say, and merely radiated smugness. That had gone excellently, and Draym's next admission made the Green even happier.

"Your first? Oh..." She wasn't sure what to say to that, so instead of blushing or blabbing, she just smiled. "Well I do no believe that, but whatever you say, Candidate," she said, just slightly teasing. "You do be too good looking for no pretty hold girls at a gather to have noticed you, no?" she asked, reaching out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind his ear. "Unless you do be from some boring hold... Lighttower, maybe? Or the North?"

[draym]

Draym chuckled softly when asked about his hold life. He slightly turned as her hand slid gently along his cheek to tuck hair behind his ear. That felt good.

"Actually, I spent a lot of my time helping my father. I never really had time to go find a pretty girl like you to be around." He felt a little more bold now. She was warming up to him a little bit. It could always be the effect of her dragon's intentions though. Still...

Draym took her hand in both of his and smiled at her as he held their hands between them. His eyes traveled along her arms and took in her more feminine curves before his blushing face turned up enough to lock eyes. She was a lot prettier than any hold girl he had ever seen in his hold.

"Besides that, you're much prettier than any of those girls. I have no regrets waiting to meet you, for my first kiss." He winked at Ten, then averted his eyes a little bit. Biting his lip, he let her hand slip out of his.

"Your Ducky thing hasn't appeared yet. I guess our kiss wasn't good enough." He gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry it was a waste of your time."